Playing South Carolina later in the football season is no advantage for the Georgia Bulldogs this season, says savannahnow.com columnist Buck Belue.

“Would you rather face the Gamecocks with (Marcus) Lattimore getting 32 carries, or just 15 carries? No need to answer out loud. We all know the answer. Less is better when it comes to tackling this guy,” Belue writes.

Read all of Belue’s columns at savannahnow.com/sports.

Armstrong teams

open nationals

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Armstrong Atlantic State tennis coach Simon Earnshaw was named the Division II Women’s Tennis National Coach of the Year by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) on Tuesday evening.

Two Armstrong men’s players also earned honors. Sophomore Georgi Rumenov was named the ITA Division II National Player to Watch and Sven Lalic was named the ITA Division II Rookie of the Year.

Rumenov was a four-time Peach Belt Player of the Week honoree on the way to being named the Peach Belt Player of the Year. The Barcelona native is ranked No. 1 in both singles and doubles in the Campbell/ITA Division II Men’s Rankings. He has a record of 20-1 in singles play and 24-1 in doubles action on the season. Rumenov is the second Armstrong player to earn ITA National Player to Watch honors.

Lalic, meanwhile, was named the Peach Belt Freshman of the Year along with being selected to the Peach Belt All-Conference Second Team for both singles and doubles. The Banja Luka, Bosnia, native has an undefeated record in dual singles action, dropping only one set the entire spring.

The Armstrong Atlantic State men’s and women’s tennis teams will open play in the NCAA Division II national championship tournament’s round of 16 in Louisville, Ky., today.

Armstrong’s third-ranked women’s team, which has a perfect record of 25-0, will play No. 23 Drury at 11 a.m.

The top-ranked men’s team, undefeated at 26-0, will take on Queens (N.Y.) at 2 p.m.

Cavs’ Irving is top NBA rookie

INDEPENDENCE, Ohio — Cavaliers guard Kyrie Irving is the NBA’s Rookie of the Year, winning the award with the same ease as he dribbled past defenders this season.

Irving received 117 of 120 possible first-place votes from a nationwide media panel of 120 writers and broadcasters. Irving finished with 592 points, way ahead of Minnesota’s Ricky Rubio (170) and Denver’s Kenneth Faried (129), who was third.

Faried, San Antonio’s Kawhi Leonard and New York’s Iman Shumpert received the other first-place votes, denying Irving’s bid to become the fourth player to win the award unanimously.

The 20-year-old is the second Cleveland player to win the award, joining LeBron James in 2004.

The No. 1 overall pick in last year’s draft, he was clearly the league’s top first-year player, leading all rookies — and the Cavs — in scoring with 18.5 points per game. He also led all rookies in field-goal percentage (46.8), was second in assists (5.4) and became one of just six rookies in league history to average at least 18 points and five assists.